Sand Valley, Wisconsin, USA OPEN: Sand Valley course — May 2017; Mammoth Dunes course — nine holes open, fully open 2018 seaside links golf in the heart of America’s Midwest? Implausible maybe, but Sand Valley resort is laid out across 1,700 acres of rollercoaster central Wisconsin sand dunes. The development has a pedigree background. Owner Mike Keiser developed Oregon’s acclaimed Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, featuring four courses ranked among America’s top 15 public courses by Golf Digest. He’s turned to two of the design teams from there, with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designing Sand Valley and David McLay Kidd craſting Mammoth Dunes, both walking-only courses. GREEN FEES: £64-£148 sandvalleygolfresort.com
King Robert the Bruce course, Trump Turnberry, Scotland OPEN: June 2017 it may be the junior sister course to turnberry’s wonderful Ailsa links, but this reworking of the old Kintyre course by Martin Ebert, who was behind The Ailsa’s recent makeover, has already garnered praise from critics. The course is a complete transformation, with the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th holes offering stirring views of the rocky coast, the island of Ailsa Craig, the famous lighthouse and the ruins of Turnberry Castle, in which the lighthouse sits and where Scotish king Robert the Bruce was born in 1274. GREEN FEES: £60-£120 turnberry.co.uk
